1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to field of home electronic entertainment and more particularly it relates to systems for compression rate selection.
Portions of the disclosure of this patent document contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
2. Background Art
Entertainment systems have advanced rapidly in recent years. First was the advent of the radio. Then, the television became popular. Next, playback devices such as the VCR came into use and more recently digital video disc (DVD) players and recorders have become popular. At the same time, the Internet has grown by leaps and bounds becoming a favorite medium for users to not only be entertained, but also shop, learn, and communicate with others via e-mail or other methods, such as newsgroups and chat-rooms.
Each of these forms of entertainment has a different appeal to its users and many users prefer to use all of these modes of entertainment from time to time. Each of these forms of entertainment, however, has its own hardware associated with it. For instance, television is watched on a television set, music is listened to on a radio, the Internet is used with a computer and associated software. DVD players implement DVD playback, etc. The plurality of devices needed to effectuate all of these modes of entertainment quickly becomes unwieldy and space inefficient when a user has all of these devices in a small space, such as the bedroom of their house.
Compounding this problem is the fact that a plurality of users in a household each desire to enjoy one or more of these modes of entertainment simultaneously and in disparate locations. Thus, in a conventional household, each room may have a TV, radio, DVD player, and personal computer for accessing the Internet. This becomes extremely space inefficient, repetitious, and wasteful. For instance, the same set of speakers could power the radio, TV, and computer, yet currently each piece of hardware has its own sound system. In addition, the same device could be used to provide output from many of these devices. For instance, the same screen could be used to display a television program and the HTML output of an Internet server on a user""s web browser, yet current schemes usually employ two separate devices which leads to two screens in the same room.
One solution is found in the newly emerging xe2x80x9cset-topxe2x80x9d boxes. One type of set-top box combines Internet functionality with a television set, yet video playback must be used with another device making it disadvantageous. One type of set-top box provides an architecture that provides for multiple nodes, yet each node may not independently access the Internet or even watch different television stations. Other set top boxes provide a combination of Internet and television, while playback and recording devices like DVDs and DVRs must be used with separate hardware.
Media is frequently recorded for display at some future time. For example, a user may record a television program on a VCR. Additionally, a user may record an audio only broadcast on a tape cassette. Devices typically used for storing media include VCR tapes, DVDs, CDs, cassette tapes and computer disks.
FIG. 1 illustrates the process of recording media. At step 100, the media signal is received by a recording device. At step 110, the media signal is stored in a storage device.
Media signals are frequently compressed. One method of compression used by VCRs is to select a recording rate. For example, the recording rate can be set such that a VCR tape records two, four or six hours of media signals. An increased compression rate allows recording more media signals in the same amount of storage space. However, an increased compression rate frequently results in lower recording quality. Thus, the process of determining a compression rate must take both storage space and signal quality into consideration.
FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art method of selecting a compression rate. At step 200, a user selects a program to record. At step 210, the user considers available storage space and desired signal quality. At step 220, the user selects a compression rate.
Prior art solutions require a user to select a compression rate before the media signal is recorded. However, the maximum compression rate achievable without unacceptable loss of media signal quality, termed the xe2x80x9coptimal compression rate,xe2x80x9d varies. Thus, users frequently select sub-optimal compression rates. If a user selects a lower compression rate than the optimal compression rate, more storage space is used to store the media signal than is required. Additionally, if a user selects a higher compression rate than the optimal compression rate, the signal quality of the stored media signal is unacceptable.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for compression rate selection. One embodiment of the present invention automatically selects a compression rate for a media signal. The embodiment determines an optimal compression rate for a media signal, compresses the signal at that rate, and stores the signal for later playback. An optimal compression rate is one which stores the media signal in the least amount of storage space without unacceptably degrading the media signal.
One embodiment uses information about the media signal to determine a compression rate. In one embodiment, the information is automatically generated. One embodiment automatically generates the information using meta-information (e.g., channel, genre, etc.). Another embodiment automatically generates information using natural language parsing of a media signal description. In another embodiment, the information is generated through manual entry. In yet another embodiment, the information is generated by automatically compressing a media signal at a first rate and examining the compressed signal to determine how the compression rate should be modified.
In one embodiment, the information is generated at the server side of a client/server architecture. In another embodiment, the information is generated at the client side of a client/server architecture. In yet another embodiment, the information is generated at both sides of a client/server architecture.